Do you like ham? What about radio? What if we mixed them together and made a ham radio? Would you like that?
But in all seriousness the Ham Radio is an incredibly useful device offering people the ability to communicate across amazingly long distances. It is another technology that has really stood the test of time and is still being used to this day.
An estimated six million people are still involved with this hobby that began at the start of the 20th century. HAM radio operators communicate with each other over short wave radio. HAM radios have been featured in many popular movies, including The Shining and Contact.
The term "ham" was first a pejorative term used in professional wired telegraphy during the 19th century, to mock operators with poor Morse code sending skills ("ham-fisted").[10][11][12][13] This term continued to be used after the invention of radio and the proliferation of amateur experimentation with wireless telegraphy; among land- and sea-based professional radio operators, "ham" amateurs were considered a nuisance. The use of "ham" meaning "amateurish or unskilled" survives today in other disciplines ("ham actor").
The amateur radio community subsequently began to reclaim the word as a label of pride,[14] and by the mid-20th century it had lost its pejorative meaning. Although not an acronym, it is often mistakenly written as "HAM" in capital letters.
Ham Radio will continue to exist long into the future because really there is no other alternative for the technology based on our current understanding of physics and science. If you want a reliable way to communicate across long distances via radio waves. Ham is the plan!
Source:
Wikipedia